Sweet Misfortune by Kevin Alan Milne

A cute, cute idea, and one very sweet read.
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Sophie Jones is a pessimist. You can tell by her wry sense of humor, the umbrella she carries every day, just knowing it will rain, and because of the misfortune cookies--dipped in bitter chocolate and stuffed with dim advice--she makes and sells in her confections shop.
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Happiness rightly eludes you. ~~ When offered the dream of a lifetime, SAY NO! Remember, it's just a dream. ~~ Yesterday was the high point of your life. Sorry.
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Sophie feels convicted in giving her customers these treats with a realistic bite. After all, there's no guarantee life will ever go your way, that you'll be happy in the end. She knows. She lost both parents to one tragedy, and her fiance dumped her with no explanation.
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Why get her hopes up? Dream? Expect happiness? In her experience, it's all for naught.
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Enter her ex, Garrett, who returns to beg forgiveness and a chance to explain everything. She hesitates, of course, because why risk heartbreak again? But when he shows determination, going so far as to elicit help from the general public, she concedes.
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One more shot at happiness.
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Can Garrett prove to Sophie it does exist?
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Kevin Alan Milne, praised for his sweet, heartwarming tales, is the author of The Paper Bag Christmas and The Nine Lessons. Visit him by way of his website or blog.
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*I was given a copy of the book, courtesy Goldberg McDuffie Communications, in exchange for this review.
**Incidentally, I've another book review up at The Blue Bookcase. See what I had to say about The Wednesday Letters by Jason Wright, here.

Writer in the Kitchen

"Cooking takes time. It takes focus. It takes love. And that's what I pour, instead, into the work of creating and running an entire town named Mitford... Thus, on most evenings you may find me standing at the sink, devouring such culinary delicacies as pepperoni left over from last week's pizza, or fried chicken from the gas station up the road..."

Jan Karon

author of the Mitford books

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I read this in the introduction to Karon's Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader, and I thought yes. Yes! This is me!

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And now I feel less guilty about not wanting to spend more time in the kitchen. All that creative energy, I understand now, goes toward my writing.

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What about you? On what do you spend your energies?

Ducks, Boat, Pond

When over the weekend we came across these ducks, and their picture-perfect surroundings, I had to pull out my camera.

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Tell me a story, give me an observation, anything--no rules--about this photo.